I am very excited to be heading off to China this week. At our conference this past August, VCIA hosted a delegation from China, including the head of the Chinese captive insurance association and the risk manager from COSCO, China’s enormous shipping company. Andrew Baillie, who runs the captive for AES (and a recently minted VCIA board member) moderated the panel with our Chinese guests with the able services of Christina Kindstedt of AIM providing translation services.

The Chinese delegation was so impressed with our conference that they invited me to join them this week in Tianjin on a panel at the 2018 Jing-Jin-Ji International Insurance Forum.  The topics on the panel will include the captive rules comparison in Asia, U.S. and Europe, best practice and the latest innovation. They have invited insurance supervisors from HK, Singapore, Malaysia and Guernsey to join the panel as well. They have also arranged a solo report for me on the introduction of the Vermont captive market, development and supervision.

Right now, there is a relatively small number of captives in China – and mostly held by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) like COSCO. However, there seems to be a growing interest in captive insurance for private enterprises and other SOEs looking to better manage their risk.  And while it may a long-shot to get a Chinese captive to domicile in Vermont, the fact that they are looking at VCIA as a place to learn illustrates the continued leadership of Vermont in the growing worldwide industry.

As they say in China: 我期待着您的回音

(I look forward to hearing from you!)

Rich Smith
VCIA President